Tuesday, May 20, 2008

I stopped attending the martial arts school I had been training at in September 2007. I notified them clearly in writing I would no longer be attending. I anticipated leaving the country for some months and I was suffering constant tenderness and pain in my wrists due to their training methods. Their billing company Educational Funding Corporation continued billing me even though by their own admission medical problems (in this case directly caused by the training) allow the student to stop training, according to the contract.

I contacted the billing agency the first month (October) they continued to bill me and was confronted by a hostile belligerant attitude even when I thoroughly explained the situation. I also sent a letter from my doctor documenting my injury and stating that she directed me to top the training. They continued to bill me form November and December when I was clearly not attending the school and I filed a disptue with my credit card company which was decided in my favor. I also had to have a new credit card issued since EFC obviously was going to continue fraudulently billing me.

In the intervening months I sent them two more certified letters with two more letters from my doctor and attempted to speak with them by phone and was always confronted by the same belligerent and unreasonable attitude.

They ignored all the leters and phonecalls and have put my account into collections. I have never in my entire life had an account in collections and fear this could effect my credit profile.

May 20, 2008 10:36 AM

4 comments:

Assou Harvard A.K.A. Assou Hamdaoui with Champion Jiu Jitsu in Arlington Heights IL made an agreement with me in regard to my son taking jiu jitsu lessons at his studio. I was wary of signing a 12 mo' agreement but he assured me that I could get out of the agreement if I gave him written notice.

My son started the class in April 08 and in Aug 08 I provided written notice that my son wishes to discontinue his classes.

I received no response from Mr Harvard. After multiple attempts to contact him http://www.championjiu... I received an email in December of 08 from "Julianne" that said she was the one that made an agreement with me and she clearly stated the terms of the agreement (Both of which are a lie), and if i wanted a refund that i had to contact Educational Funding Company for it.

After multiple calls to Educational Funding Company I got in touch with a Cliff Quarrie who told me that he would assist on getting me a refund if I emailed him the corespondence that i had with Champion Jiu Jitsu noting my cancelation. The email he gave me was cliffquarrie@yahoo.com.

I sent multiple emails to Cliff Quarrie with no response. I had to again call into Educational Funding Company this time i asked for Nick Cokinos (Chairman of the company who markets himself and his company as teaching integrity) reached him and i explained my situation and he said that he would transfer me to someone that dealt with refunds.

The person i was sent to was "Villy" villy@efconline.com. He told me if i sent him the correspondence with Champion Jiu Jits AND Cliff Quarrie with Educational Funding Company that he would work on the refund issue.

I have not received a response from Assou Harvard, Cliff Quarrie, Villy@efconline.com, or Nick Cokinos regarding my problems.

Be wary of of doing business with Assou Harvard and Champion Jiu Jitsu as his word is NOT his Bond.

Be wary of Educational Funding Company because they are the billing agents for Champion Jiu Jitsu and the integrity I have seen them display is in direct conflict with how they market themselves.

Hopefully I can save others from the time/money andexperiences that I had to go through.

I too are in the middle of cancelling a contract with EFC. Last month they charged and refunded my payment. Costing me 150 in overdraft charges.

I was told that my IRS penalty was a justifiable reason for cancellation and faxed over my IRS paper work as proof. This month I was again charged and now waiting for refund. I have gone nearly 2 weeks without money. Living off oranges and avacado trees in the neighborhood along with donations from friends and family....without gas money I rid a bike to work...over 25 miles...i leave at 6 in the morning and come home around 8 at night....Still waiting on what I thought was a done deal on this contract and next I plan on going back to the Instructor and see how they can help before smearing the studios name all over the web..

I have been a member of Champion Jiu Jitsu for many months now and I am very happy with their service.

I don't know what to say regarding to the 1-year contract issue but as far as I know, I didn't sign any contract (other than the waiver) when signing up and I pay on a monthly basis. Aside from all the "fraud" claims and stuff with the money posted by others here, it is an excellent place to learn jiu jitsu. It is a little on the pricey end but it is definitly worth it.

Assou himself is very knowledgable as far as jiu jitsu and MMA and is always helping out his students to understand the art and improve their game. The side instructors are also very skilled and good at helping people out and have helped me out a lot with my game. Classes are fun and enjoyable also; time seems to fly by and I look forward to going there. It is a great learning atmosphere, unlike any other martial arts school that I've been to.

If you're looking for a place to train jiu jitsu, this is definitly the place. Whether you don't know any jiu jitsu or are highly skilled, you'll improve your game significantly by training at CJJ. You get 1 free class trial so check the place out for yourself and see for yourself.

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